Super Bowl seating fiasco leaves 400 fans with no place to sit for the big game

Hundreds of fans who had spent thousands of dollars on their Super Bowl experience found themselves with nowhere to sit inside the stadium.

No seats greeted 1,250 ticket holders as the Green Bay Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Cowboys Stadium for Super Bowl XLV.

'Incomplete installation of temporary seats in a limited number of sections made the seats unusable,' the NFL said in a statement explain the fracas.

Bigger refund: The 400 NFL fans who turned up at this month's Super Bowl with valid tickets but were denied seats for safety reasons have now been offered either $5,000 or refunded expenses as compensation

Saga: A general view of Cowboys Stadium before Super Bowl XLV in Texas. Angry fans have now filed a lawsuit against the NFL and Dallas Cowboys after they could not sit in assigned seats

Approximately 850 fans who had been affected were relocated to different seats.

The NFL said that 400 fans in other sections could not be accommodated with seats inside the stadium and would each receive a refund of triple the cost of the face value of their $900 tickets.

Entertainment: The Black Eyed Peas perform during the half-time show as millions watch around the world

But for fans who paid thousands of dollars in hotel and transportation costs the triple refund will be of little consolation.

And for those who also paid a high premium to ticket scalpers, the blow was no doubt greater.

About 15,000 temporary seats had been added to the showpiece stadium so that this Super Bowl would set a record for largest crowd attendance ever.

While the affected seats had been installed in six temporary sections, they went up so late that the fire marshal didn't have time to inspect them, according to a police officer standing near an affected area who wouldn't give his name.

Commiserations: The two head coaches, Mike McCarthy and Mike Tomlin, left, greet each other after the game

Game winner: Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings scores his second touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter

Shortfall: More than 103,219 people watched the game from the $1.2billion Cowboys Stadium just missing the current Super Bowl-record of 103,985

Long lines at security checks, elevators and toilets also had fans grumbling as an expected record crowd of over 100,000 filled the state-of-art $1.2 billion stadium.

The brand new Dallas Cowboys' stadium also had a terrifying incident on Friday, just two days before the game..

Massive chucks of ice slid off what is the biggest domed stadium in the United States and injured six people, one seriously.

Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones no doubt hoped a smooth game day would erase the memory of the roof disaster.

Tight security was in place around the sprawling facility and fans were warned to arrive early and be prepared for long lines as they passed through airport-type security, including metal detectors, body searches and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Advertisement

Share or comment on this article:

Super Bowl 2011 seating fiasco leaves 400 fans with no place to sit for big game